Schober - Hacked Again

WITH MY MONDAY-MORNING COFFEE IN HAND, I turned on my computer and began comparing my mental checklist to my digital one for all the items I wanted to accomplish that week. It was late in 2013, and this weekly ritual allowed me to feel a sense of accomplishment as I crossed off each item I completed throughout the day to help me stay focused in my little world of organized chaos.

I am the president and CEO of a privately held wireless engineering corporation that has been in business for more than forty years. Our area of expertise is in wireless and security testing tools. In the last five years, there has been rapid growth in wireless threat-detection tools used by cybersecurity groups globally. In a typical day at the office, I check our online accounts to see where we standespecially to see if we received any incoming wire transfers, as about twenty-five percent of our business is international.

As I reflect back on that scary day now, I remember entering in my frustratingly long and easy-to-forget password on the banking website only to find the account balance was alarmingly low. My mind raced in disbelief. Did payroll come out? No, wait, it's only Monday, and payroll is not debited until Thursday. I found myself looking at numerous debits not at all familiar to me. What's going on here? Then reality hit me.

Hacked... again! I finally had to admit it to myself out loud.

We are a security company and this happened to us? But this was not an isolated incident or even the first time my company had been hacked. For that, we must look back even further to a slightly younger and greener small business and its owner. Between and after our hacks, I have come to learn so much more than I ever wouldve imagined. I try not to let my mistakes define me so much as guide me and keep me humble. And that brings me to this book and to the idea behind writing it. Hopefully, I will connect with readers eager to learn from my mistakes and my experience in the cybersecurity industry.

I am excited to share my journey with you in the hope it will prevent you from going down same path I have already traversed. In Part 1, I share my candid story of how my small business was the victim of repeated cyberattacks and how I quickly learned that nothing is truly secure. In Part 2, I share best practices to help you protect your identity, business, personal data, and finances by using specific measures, both preventative and remedial. Part 3 is designed to help you stay safe in this challenging and always changing digital world without losing hope or sight of whats truly important. In Part 4, I tally the major breaches that have made the headlines over the past several years and how they affect us all.

I can hardly contain my excitement for the world of technology that I live and work in everyday. I have carved a path for myself as a business owner, inventor, and now a cybersecurity expert, but I have much further to go, and this book serves as a next step in my quest to educate, inform, and, most importantly, help others survive and thrive in this digitally connected world.

CHAPTER 1

CASH IN THE MATTRESS

FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO BE COMPETITIVE, they need to align with a strong bank. This allows a company to borrow capital, pay bills, and maintain a trusted source to safely hold valuable funds as their business grows. My parents, Gary and Eileen Schober, opened Berkeley Varitronics Systemss (BVS) bank account back in 1973 at United Jersey Bank in Edison, New Jersey, when I was only four years old.

BVS was one of the very first corporate accounts opened at United Jersey Bank. Back then, it was not uncommon to walk into a bank where everyone knew everyone else and were on a first-name basis. This provided a level of comfort in knowing who was watching your money. There was an implied level of trust when you saw those familiar faces, and you felt secure.

BVS continued to grow, and United Jersey Bank grew as well. United Jersey eventually bought out its rival, Summit Bank out of Summit, New Jersey, but kept the Summit name. In the early 2000s, Summit Bank was acquired by Fleet Boston and kept the name Fleet Bank in New Jersey. By 2005, Fleet Bank was acquired by Bank of America (BoA) in a large transaction. Needless to say, the friendly local bank that BVS trusted for decades has changed significantly: its now a goliath of a bank, not at all reminiscent of the early days of personalized small business banking.

In 2012, BVS continued to expand its wireless security offerings to security professionals, and I began getting numerous requests for advice about the tools I would recommend to counter wireless threats, as well as general questions on how to keep small businesses safe. As soon as our solutions and advice began to get out into the mainstream, we also found ourselves a target for hackers. Sharing and helping has always been fundamental in my upbringing. Hackers might appreciate advice and scripts from fellow hackers, but I can assure you that they do not appreciate anyone who makes their hacking more difficult by providing advice on protecting businesses from hacks. I was about to find this out the hard way.